Chiropractors should report problems, says surgeon

Australian chiropractors should be recording and reporting problems so people know the risks of their treatments, a Melbourne surgeon says.

In a letter published in The Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, orthopaedic spinal surgeon John Cunningham said chiropractors were not reporting problems following their treatments that could include dissection of arteries in the neck - a serious injury that could cause stroke.

Mr Cunningham, a surgeon at the Royal Melbourne and Epworth hospitals, said there was a lack of reporting of problems after chiropractic treatments, particularly in Australia. ''A 2002 Canadian study describes 23 cases of vertebral artery dissection associated with chiropractic manipulation over a 10-year period, suggesting a real risk associated with these techniques,'' he wrote in his letter with Joanne Benhamu, of Friends of Science in Medicine, and David Hawkes, of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.